Child of the Sands
by Cyberwolf
Summary: Luke (being Luke) stumbles upon a Sith artifact that leaves him...changed. Chapter 3 up, chapter 2 revised. We see the first real bit of drama, and the reason why I upped the rating. Five-year-old Luke reveals a secret that adult Luke never told anyone.
1. Where'd Luke Go? (or, here's Lukie!)

Luke Skywalker, Hero of the Rebellion, Jedi Master, head of the ancient order of the Jedi, Prince of Alderaan (by strength of his twin sister's position) and a whole list of other titles that his protocol droid, C-3PO, would no doubt enjoy enumerating, was bored.  
  
He stared out over the greenery of the Yavin IV rainforest from his vantage point in the Great Temple. His ice-blue eyes were dull and glazed, not in sleep, but lacking the fiery spark that had so marked him in his younger days. He had turned over the management of his Jedi Academy to Kam and Tionne, recognizing that his talents lay not in teaching but in other things...  
  
/What others?/  
  
...but though having the stress of running a school gone was nice, it also left him with nothing to do. Hence, boredom on a massive scale was setting in.  
  
/I wonder if boredom is part of the Dark Side?/  
  
Luke shook his head sadly and stood up. He decided that a run through the forests was just what he needed to shock him out of this self-pitying, and to get some training too. He leapt down the 20 or so meters from his perch to the stone platform beneath. He then set off at a run down the long stone stairs the platform marked the top of. He had shed his robes and lightsaber-laden belt at the top, leaving him clad only in loose military trousers and a black sleeveless shirt.  
  
He raced through the forest easily, relying on the Force as well as his senses to warn him of obstacles on his way. He decided to take a different route from that which he normally took, today, and veered off left, towards a section of the forest he'd never seen before.  
  
He had been running for nearly an hour, unhampered as of yet by fatigue or heavy breathing, when suddenly it hit him. A Dark Side presence plowed into his mind, proclaiming its existence as strongly as a krayt dragon's roar. Luke stopped dead in sheer shock. Aside from the strength of the presence, it had been unusual in that he had not felt any vague hints of it earlier on, as with most manifestations of the Force. It had been normal, one step, and then the next - BOOM!  
  
In retrospect, Luke would later think that he really should have backed off then, and gone to the Academy to assemble a bunch of other Jedi to come with him and investigate the phenomenon. But there had been a time when Luke was the daredevil pilot who led Rogue Squadron, the most (in)famous X-Wing squad in NR history, and some of the daredevil was still in him, no matter the years. He ventured forth.  
  
He found himself confronting a large pyramidical structure, wrought of some unidentifiable glossy black substance. Strange carvings were etched into its sides, weird shapes that made Luke's head hurt when he looked at them too long. Four lines of red snaked down each side, meeting at the apex of the twelve-foot-tall pyramid.  
  
Luke cautiously stretched out a tendril of the Force to it, probing, testing. He abruptly drew back in alarm as the artifact seemed to react to even that tiny bit of Force usage - the lines flared brightly, and suddenly the whole thing was glowing.  
  
Luke started to back off a bit, but it was too late. A roar seemed to fill his ears as a wave of Dark Force hurtled towards him. Immediately, he slammed up a Force barrier. Such was its strength that the Dark Force that hit it rebounded and hit the pyramid, leaving it nulled. However, enough of the Dark Force made it past the shield and to Luke.  
  
His scream echoed out through the Yavin forest, both through the Force and through the air.  
  
***  
  
Han Solo was awakened very unpleasantly. It hadn't been a good day anyway, with an inspection of the troops that required him to wear his dress uniform - a thing he despised as a creation of the Sith - that took up most of the day, followed by a diplomatic dinner requiring formal wear he hated worse than his dress uniform.  
  
Then, after being allowed to go to bed and sleep, he was awakened by his wife, Leia Organa Solo, sitting upright in bed as if stung by a Dathomir _lamok (a rather poisonous type of bug). He was inclined to snap - until he saw Leia's face. Her eyes were wide and staring, and her face was very pale. She was breathing in shallow gasps. Han had not seen her look so distraught since…well, since never.  
  
"Leia…what…?" he began, putting a hand on her shoulder. She didn't seem to notice and continued to gulp in air desperately. It was then that Han noticed that he could hear Anakin crying in his bedroom, and that Jaina and Jacen were standing in the doorway, looking not much better than their mother.  
  
"What?" Han said again, looking around desperately. It was something to do with the Force, he knew, and felt bad that he couldn't help, not here.  
  
"It's Uncle Luke," said Jacen and Jaina in unison, their seven-year-old voices hoarse. Their reply was almost synchronized with Leia's frightened whisper, "__Luke!" Yet another indication that it was something to do with the Force - hell, it was practically a guarantee. They'd said Luke, hadn't they?  
  
"Han! We need to go to Yavin…now!" Leia said, clutching at his arm with a strength that spoke of desperation. "Han, please…"  
  
"Pack up," he said, rising from the bed. "You too, Jacen, Jaina. I'll call the spaceport to ready the __Falcon."  
  
As the twins and Leia began to throw clothes into a bag with a frenzied speed that said they didn't really care what they were putting in, Han realized he could still hear Anakin crying.  
  
***  
  
They arrived at the spaceport in record time. Leia had taken the wheel of the family vehicle, and drove through the airspace of Coruscant - still crowded despite the hour - with a speed and recklessness that amazed even Han. And she scolded him for his driving?  
  
Fear was beginning to creep into his belly with an ice-cold feeling. The kid must be in real trouble, if the reactions of his family were anything to go by. Jacen and Jaina were seated side-by-side, so close they were practically huddling together, faces pale and eyes huge. Anakin was curled up in his father's lap, still sniffling. He kept his own blue eyes screwed tightly shut, and Han couldn't help but feel a little grateful. When he was feeling this concerned for Luke, seeing Luke's eyes in his son's face would not help. C-3PO was there too, uncharacteristically quiet except for solemn and surprisingly sensitive attempts to offer reassurance to those of the Solo family possessed of the Force.  
  
When they reached the spaceport, they all but sprinted for the Falcon. Han gave a passing wish for Chewie - his copilot was off on Kashyyyk, visiting his family - but an unexpected replacement offered itself. Next to the Falcon, a certain red-headed figure awaited them, travel-bag on the floor beside.  
  
Han Solo wanted to ask why in the seven cold hells Mara Jade was there, but Anakin inadvertently answered the question. "You felt Uncle Luke too, didn't you?" he asked, trotting to the green-eyed smuggler and looking up at her mournfully.  
  
Mara Jade opened and closed her mouth a few times before answering. "Y…yes... Yes, I did." She looked at Han and Leia. "I think every Force- sensitive this side of Yavin did." Mara looked bad, pale as Leia and the kids, and her green eyes definitely blood-shot.  
  
"I was here to talk to the Senate about something for the Smugglers' Alliance," she explained, raking a hand through red-gold hair more tousled than normally. "And then I…__stars, Leia! What happened to your brother?"  
  
"I don't know," Leia confessed miserably. "I just felt that…that __bolt… and then that surge of Force from Luke..."  
  
"I can't feel Uncle Luke anymore, Mama," Anakin said, hugging Mara's leg. Strangely, she didn't seem to mind - she even reached down and laid a comforting hand on the six-year-old's head. "I mean, I can...but it's __different, it's not the same! And I can only feel him for a little bit, then he slips away again..." The twins nodded solemnly at their little brother's words, and from the look on Mara and Leia's faces, Anakin had nailed it down direct for them too.  
  
"Can I…can I ride with you, Solo?" Mara asked. She met his eyes squarely. "The __Falcon is a faster ship than my __Fire," she admitted grudgingly. "And…"  
  
"Of course you can," Leia said at once. Han raised an eyebrow - not that he particularly minded Mara coming aboard, but Leia was not normally as trusting of the former assassin as that. Then again, this Force storm of trouble from Luke might have swept that all aside for once.  
  
"C'mon aboard," Han said, hefting the Solo family's own bags. Mara picked hers up and followed them inside.  
  
***  
  
Mara Jade was not happy. She had been Han's co-pilot as they made the jump into hyperspace, and for a while she lost herself in the familiar rhythms of calculating and managing a hyperspace jump, but now they were just rushing along, and there was no avenue to lose the pain in anymore.  
  
She lay on the bunk Han had pointed out for her use, but sleep would not come. She hadn't slept at all since bolting upright in her bed at Coruscant, almost keening with the sheer pain that she had felt. It was Luke's pain, she had known that in an instant, but also it had been like it was her own pain. She had stumbled to get her bags packed, hardly knowing what she was doing.  
  
It was only when she found herself standing by the __Millenium Falcon, awaiting the Solos - for she had known, just as she had known that the Force surge came from Luke, that his twin sister would be heading for her brother's side with all the speed she could muster - that she found herself wondering what the hell she was doing.  
  
And then here she found herself, bound for Yavin, and on the Solos' ship instead of her own - and feeling as if the Force itself left her with no choice in the matter.  
  
She finally gave up on sleep and got up. She smoothed her red hair down, trying to force it to some semblance of order, before exiting the room. She headed for the __Falcon's galley, having some vague notions of brewing herself some hot chocolate - Sith, that was Skywalker's signature drink, why was she thinking of it? - when she discovered a new presence tagging along at her heels.  
  
Little Anakin Solo looked up at her, clad in pajamas, but his eyes unsleepy. He accompanied her silently into the galley, and Mara found herself not only making hot chocolate, but giving the child a mug of it as well. He accepted it gravely, sitting beside her in the eating area.  
  
Anakin had taken to hanging around her during the trip, much the same way as how the twins were rarely separate from their mother now. He spoke little, but seemed to take assurance from being near her. In some ways, it was easier for Mara, because she felt like she could share the pain with the boy…but in some ways it was not. He kept looking at her with Luke's eyes.  
  
***  
  
When the __Falcon touched down on Yavin IV, Tionne was waiting for them. Leia and the children nearly stampeded Mara and Han down the ramp, and truth be told, the other two were not actually that far behind.  
  
Leia demanded news of her brother, but Tionne, eyes unfathomable, could only shake her head and say, "You'll have to see him. Words cannot..." and she trailed off, shaking her head again.  
  
"He's alive, then?" Leia demanded, joyous relief battling with anxiety in her eyes.  
  
Tionne hesitated. "Well…in a manner of speaking..."  
  
Han glared. "What do you mean, __'in a manner'? What's wrong with the kid?" Han had known Luke longer than any of them, even longer than Leia by some hours, and Luke was his brother in more than law.  
  
"You have to come see," Tionne repeated.  
  
She led the party up into the higher levels of the Tower. Around them, they could observe that the few students actually out wandered around with a half-dazed expression on their faces, but concern for Luke Skywalker drove away any wondering about that.  
  
They reached their destination. Tionne pressed the call-button beside the door, and it was answered by a weary-looking Kyp Durron. "Oh, you're here," he said flatly. He moved aside to let them in.  
  
They moved inside the room, eyes darting about. "Where is he?" Leia demanded again. Kyp gave a low groan. "And I just got him to sleep too!"  
  
They stared at him, for that cryptic remark, but Tionne just nodded and said, "They're his family. They deserve to know."  
  
Kyp grumbled, "You haven't been on duty for the last hour," but obediently moved towards a bed. They followed, mystified.  
  
And then Kyp drew back the covers, and they were staring at a small, blond boy curled up on the bed. He blinked at the movement and sat up, rubbing away sleep with chubby fists. He stared at them with ice-blue eyes.  
  
They stared back. Leia was the first to break the silence. "You can't mean..." she started, looking incredelously at Tionne and Kyp. "Luke?"  
  
The little boy on the bed recognized the sound. "That's __my name!" he proclaimed, in a high, piping voice. "Who're you?"  
  
***  
__  
AN: Yes, it starts out sort of serious, but this story is sort of meant to be comedy. Mostly comedy, with a few WAFF-type moments. I am going to continue this myself, but if anyone wants to try and have a crack at continuing it themselves, go on! Think of it as a fic challenge._


	2. Whoops...was it supposed to do that?

            "Okay, let's put out what we know," said Leia, automatically taking command of the small gathering. Cilghal, Kam, Streen, Kyp, Han and Mara were seated around her in the comm room of the Great Temple. Datapads littered the table before the small group, as well as cups of various stimteas – they needed it.

            In the room next door, the children played, under the careful supervision of the droids. Jacen, Jaina, Anakin – and Luke. The kids had taken their uncle's sudden age reversion a lot better than their parents had. Jacen and Jaina basically shrugged, gave the equivalent of saying "Okay, Uncle Luke's five, ho-hum…" and started to play with him. Anakin didn't even have that trouble. To him, who had always been closest to Luke, his beloved Lukie was still Lukie. In fact, Han had this sneaking suspicion that Anakin was a little happy with the fact that Luke was now nearer his own age….

            Han's musing on how his children were taking this quite well was cut out as the other adults around him began talking. 

            Kyp was the first. "When we found Master Skywalker – " it was really a little incongruous to hear that title attributed to the small boy currently wrestling with Jacen – "he was lying in front of a Sith artifact we found in the jungle. We brought it here; it doesn't seem to respond to any stimuli, so we think that when Master Skywalker activated it, he shielded and the backlash nulled it." 

            "Master Skywalker is perfectly healthy, I mean for a five-year-old boy," was Cilghal's report. "We weren't sure who he was when we found him – he was in the last place that Master Skywalker was, I mean, but you know the Force-signature…"

All the Force-sensitives in the room nodded grimly, and Han resisted the urge to ask what the hell he was missing. Apparently, as Leia put it, Luke's Force-signature was…_slippery_…now. It was subtly different from Luke's, but the strangest thing about it was that no one could hold onto it for more than a few seconds. Beyond that, and they suddenly lost the sense, and had to grope through the Force to find him again. And it was hard in the first place to find it. Not that any of this meant more than diddly-squat to him. But it had set his family to worrying, fearing for Luke, and up to now he knew they were a bit uneasy about the man-turned-little-boy. 

Cilghal was speaking again. "We took him back to the Temple, and took a DNA sample; everything's the same as before. So we knew it was him. But when he woke up, he was asking for his Uncle Owen and his aunt Beru…and he didn't know where he was. Further, he has the marks of a child not long out of the Tatooine desert environment – tanned skin, white-blond hair bleached by sun, a lower amount of water in his body than normal - not that of a person who's been living on a jungle moon. In other words – what we're dealing with is not a Jedi Master in a five-year-old's body; it's more of we really have Luke Skywalker, complete and unabridged, and five years old. It's practically time-travel." 

            "He doesn't know us," added Kam. "Nor knows anything of what happened to himself. But," he added, looking thoughtful, "He trusted us very quickly…"

            "That could just be the innate naïveté of the farmboy," Mara pointed out. 

            "No," Leia disagreed, shaking her head. "I think…I think Luke was listening to the Force…and it's telling him to trust us."

*** 

            "Roooowr."

            "No, Chewie, I did not overload the sublight engines! I'm telling you, I kept an eye on them the whole trip here!"

            "Arooooan."  
            "Who're you calling careless, fuzzbag?!"

            Han's emotional and touching reunion with his copilot, who had come back from Kashyyyk upon hearing that something had happened to 'the cub' (strange, how fitting both Chewbacca's and Han's nicknames for Luke were now) was almost drowned out by the sounds of four children playing Rebels and Imperials in the background.

            The New Republic High Council was nearly taken by collective apoplexy when they learned of the fate that had befallen the Jedi Master. Leia had had no trouble obtaining a leave-of-absence to investigate the phenomenon. She had been cloistered with the highest-ranking of the Jedi, trying to figure out the Sith artifact that had done this to Luke. 

            Mara Jade, remembering that she had obtained a bunch of data crystals containing information on the Old Republic Jedi, went back to Coruscant on one of the Academy's shuttles to fetch them – she was going to give them to Leia to give to Luke, back before this whole thing started.

            Which, of course, left Han to baby-sit. 

            He had nearly been at his wits' end, trying to keep an eye on four rambunctious children – on a jungle moon, no less. Han had never really liked jungles, and the ease they afforded children in slipping away from non-Force-talented parents made him hate them more. 

            Today Chewie had arrived from Kashyyyk, to help Han look after the children. Instead, of course, they had begun arguing over the upkeep of the _Falcon. _So engrossed were they in arguing over whether or not the current inability of the sublight engines to function was Han's fault that they did notice what the children were up to.

*** 

            Luke and Anakin stood in front of the _Falcon's _landing ramp. "D'you think we should?" Anakin asked the now-younger boy. Indecision was clear on Luke's face as he stared at the starship in front of him. His fear of being caught vied with the fact that a starship – a real, actual, functioning _spacecraft! – _was right in front of him, and ready to be explored. He shifted nervously from foot to foot.

            "I dunno, Ani…"

            Anakin shrugged. After all, _he'd_ already been on the _Millennium Falcon. _He just wanted to bring Lukie in…this Lukie couldn't remember starships, or being in one, it seemed, though he still liked them just as well. 

            "Okay," and Anakin began to walk back to where Jasa and Jaya were. 

            Luke chewed on his lip, and then made a decision. "No. Let's go in." He walked up the ramp, careful to keep his steps quiet, wincing when Anakin clattered up (noisily, Luke thought) behind him. 

            They reached the door, and discovered that though the ramp was down, the door was locked. The two blue-eyed boys exchanged glances – and then slowly grinned. Anakin got out his multitool and took the cover off the key panel where one was supposed to punch in the entry code. When he was done, he criss-crossed the red wire to the blue, and then used his multitool again to scrape the tubing off the black wire. Luke then took out a datapad from his pocket, and extended a long apparatus from it that touched the exposed wiring. He frowned at the data now scrolling across his screen before touching a few commands.

            The door hissed open.

            Anakin and Luke exchanged grins. Anakin carefully untangled the wires and put back the panel as Luke tucked the datapad back into his pocket. When he had gotten the datapad from Tionne-_kal_'s office, all he'd wanted was to tinker with it. By modifying it into an additional capability as a codebreaker, it seemed, he had gained himself a ticket into a starship.

            They entered the darkened _Falcon_, Luke peering around in amazement, Anakin walking with the calm assurance of someone who had been there many times before. In a clear voice, he called, "Lights on!" and the glowpanels came to life. Luke gaped at the technological wonderland revealed to his young eyes. 

            Anakin showed him to the galley, to the sitting room, and to the bunks. He played the part of proud owner as Luke exclaimed and examined every aspect of the ship. He got himself and Luke drinks from the _Falcon'_s freeze-unit; clambered over the bunks; and played a hologame with Luke on the holotable. And then they went down to the engine room.

            "Phew," Luke said, holding his nose. "What's that?"

            Anakin sniffed the air experimentally. "Smells like burnt wiring and circuitry. Lights on!" 

            The lights illuminated an engine-block with tools scattered around it – proof of Han and Chewie's presence earlier that day. Luke and Anakin, who shared the same insatiable curiosity about all things mechanical as well as their blue eyes, approached the engine inquisitively.

            It wasn't long before both of them were under it, trying to see what was wrong. 

            It wasn't long after that when Luke noticed what he thought was wrong, and Anakin agreed and they followed the thought to its logical end.

            It wasn't long after _that_ when they were trying to see if they could fix it. They used the tools Han and Chewie left scattered around the sublight engines. They worked in silent unison, each taking one half of the engine to repair. Despite the lack of vocal communication, whenever one boy needed a tool beyond his reach, the other would hand it to him smoothly. Anakin, having hung around his father often, knew the functions of each complicated, professional-level tool. Luke, who was often involved in fixing broken-down machinery around the Lars farm (despite his young age) was not as familiar, but picked up quickly.

            An hour later, two oil-streaked, mussed-haired boys emerged from below a now-fully-repaired engine-block. They stood before it, dusting off their hands and regarding their handiwork with pride. 

            "Do you think it'll run now?" Luke asked the older boy.

            Anakin smiled. "Only one way to find out."

*** 

            "Raroroaaaar?" 

            "The kids are there in that corner," Han waved a hand vaguely in the right direction, "playing Rebs n' Imps or Jedi duels or something. Come on, what's your hand?"

            Sure enough, the clamor of human children at play drifted to Chewbacca's ears. He turned back to his sabaac partner. "Ahwoo-ar-ar-raag…" Chewie's offer to up the ante went unfinished as, quite suddenly, the _Falcon _came to life. 

            The two erst-while smugglers turned in their chairs and gaped as the _Falcon'_ s retro-jets lifted the ship off the ground. The landing struts tucked themselves into the _Falcon_'s underbelly, the drive flared white, and then the _Falcon_ took off into the sky.

            Han's mouth was hanging open in the most blatant display of shock he had ever given before snapping closed. Chewie gave a bellow of astonishment. "Well, guess this means that the sublight drive's not broken anymore…" he muttered to himself before bolting to his feet and running to the edge of the Temple shipbay, peering into the sky after the rapidly-diminishing shape of the _Falcon_. Chewbacca was beside him, using a pair of macrobinoculars to track the ship. 

            Han shook his head in bemusement. What in all the Sith-hells had just happened? Oh sure, they were on Yavin IV, where people got possessed and random things happened because of Dark Jedi or the restless spirits thereof, but why would a Dark Jedi ghost want to hijack the _Millennium Falcon_?

            He heard small feet pattering up beside him, and turned to see his twins running to him. "Dad?" they called in unison. They skidded to a halt, Jacen trying to borrow the macrobinoculars from Chewie while Jaina looked  up at her father. "Dad, what happened?"

            Han absentmindedly ruffled his daughter's hair as he replied, "I don't know, honey, but…" He looked around, a thought suddenly striking him. "Where's Anakin and Luke? Weren't they with you?"

            Jaina shook her head. "They stopped playing with us when Jasa and I decided to have a pretend lightsaber battle instead of Rebels and Imperials. We haven't seen them since…ooooh," she breathed, as understanding dawned on her. Han and Chewie exchanged looks. They knew what had happened to the _Falcon._

***

            "What happened?!" 

            "I don't know! I don't know! We were just getting the sublight engines to rev, just to see if it would run…we didn't run the take-off sequence at all! …didn't we?"

            "Did you press anything?"

            "This, this and this – the _Galactic Compendium of Starships_ said that's the way to get a Corellian YT-1300 to idle its engines…"

            "You _have_ the _Galactic Compendium?_" Anakin asked, impressed. "That went out of print _years_ ago, dad's been trying to find one…"

            "It's not mine, really, it's Biggs's cousin's…but he left it behind at my house and…aagh, Ani!" 

            Anakin, who was in the pilot's seat, jerked the controller to one side, sharply, to avoid a looming Asakein tree. Luke, in the copilot's seat, began rapidly adjusting the _Falcon's _altitude to get out of the obstacle-course that was the top of the Yavin jungle. Both boys breathed a sigh of relief as the _Falcon _emerged into uncluttered sky.

            Anakin looked at the panel. "I think I know the problem. I was beginning to run the rev-sequence myself when the ship started…"

            Luke was confused. "But the controls for that are over on my side…"

            Anakin waved it away. "Aw, dad modified the controls so that each panel shares functions for most of the ship…that's why! You were doing it out of the book, you didn't know my dad modified the _Falcon!"_

            "Oops."

            "Uh-oh," Anakin agreed. Then he looked out of the viewport. "Lukie…we're heading out of the atmosphere!" 

*** 

            Jacen and Jaina went running into the Great Temple to alert the Jedi of what had happened while Han and Chewie hurried to the traffic-control room, where the radar was. By the time they had calibrated the radar to search for the vanished starship, Jacen and Jaina had fetched their mother.

            Han felt himself wilt at the promise of a chewing-out that Leia gave him, in just one glimpse of her brown eyes. 


	3. Hidden Scars, Secret Pasts

            Mara Jade toggled the comm switch on her console. "This is Captain Jade of the _Jade's Fire_, requesting landing clearance to Yavin IV." Mara leaned back against her captain's seat, absentmindedly fingering the small bag of data crystals that was the end result of about eight months' worth of searching. And maybe, these crystals could bring Luke back to normal. 

            Mara was waiting for landing clearance. What she didn't expect was to get the President of the NR her own royal self on the comm. 

            "Mara!" 

            The former assassin straightened in her chair, alarmed by Leia's tone. "Leia, what is it?" she asked, concerned. 

            Leia shook her head. "If I knew the whole story, I'd tell you. As it is, we don't have much time. Mara, we need you to get the _Falcon_ in a tractor-beam lock. It's coming up now – here's its expected flight-pass." Leia tapped a button, and suddenly a hologram of the _Falcon_ appeared on Mara's display, along with a arcing red line that was supposedly its flight-pass. 

            "Mara, you have to do it _now._ The ship will be in range in five seconds."

            "You got it." 

*** 

            Anakin, his feet dangling off his father's seat, turned to look at the smaller boy beside him. "We are in such deep trouble…"

            Luke leaned forward, fingers flying over the console. He scrambled to his feet and stood on the copilot's chair, swaying slightly as he fought to keep his balance on the not-exactly-smooth-going ship. He stretched to his fullest height, just managing to throw several switches on the _Falcon_'s ceiling. Immediately, Anakin felt the slightly bucking ride of the ship smoothen. 

            "C'mon, Ani," Luke said impatiently, "we've gotta get the ship turning back…" 

            Just then, a strange keening whine filled their ears, and the smell of burnt wiring, which they had smelled in the engine room, reached their nostrils once more. Anakin looked at his display and paled.

            "What is it? What is it?" Luke asked, worriedly. "Is it the sublight engines we just fixed?"

            "No…" Anakin said, shaking his head, "those are holding steady. It's the…um, you aren't going to like this…it's the stabilizers…"

            "Uh-oh…"

*** 

            Mara used gentle burst of her jets to maneuver the _Jade's Fire_ into a proper position to catch the _Falcon,_ wondering all the while what kind of person was clever enough to hijack Solo's overprotected baby away from him. 

            Then she watched, eyes furrowing as the other ship shuddered once, and then began to vibrate wildly as though shaken by a giant hand. 

            '_What in all the kriffing hells?' _

            She pushed the _Fire_ into a dive, racing to intercept the suddenly erratic _Falcon_. It was clear to her what had happened – the _Millennium Falcon_, famously irascible and breakdown-prone ship that it was, had chosen to malfunction while in the hands of whoever had stolen it. She wondered idly if Solo perhaps kept the _Falcon_ so incomprehensible to others for situations like these.

            Her ship blared out a proximity warning as she swung dangerously close to the out-of-control _Falcon. _She tapped a few buttons, trapping the _Falcon _in a tractor-beam lock; and her alarms were shrilling louder than ever, because she had gone in even closer for a sure lock, and because she had rerouted most of her weapons- and shield systems' power to the tractor beam.

            _'Come on, _Fire_…'_

            The light on top of the tractor-beam controls turned green, and Mara unconsciously relaxed. She leaned back in her seat – strange, she couldn't remember leaning forward – and flipped a switch, establishing communications with the ship in her tractor-beam. 

            "Attention to those onboard the _Falcon._ You are in tractor-lock by my ship, the _Jade's Fire,_ and if you so much as sneeze without my permission, I'm opening fire."

            She could almost hear Solo's squeals of protest. 

            "Now, I want you to move forward of my ship, starboard about twelve degrees, and we'll perform a nice little Dawrt assisted-landing."

            A human named Arass Dawrt had, about seventy-five or so years before the fall of the Old Republic, developed a maneuver which involved two ships landing while one was locked in a tractor beam. Perfect for landing captured spacecraft. 

            Instead of a sullen affirmative, or a try at bargaining or threatening, the response from the _Falcon_ was one that threw Mara for a loop. 

            "Aunt Mara?" 

*** 

            Since performing a Dawrt was totally out of the question considering that the two 'pilots' onboard the _Falcon _had ages below the double-digits, Mara instead told the two of them to shut down all of the systems onboard the ship, letting it stay as stationary as possible. 

            With very careful maneuvering, she moved the _Falcon_ close enough to the _Fire_ to initiate a docking. She'd had to move all of the power not involved with life-support to the tractor-beam, so that she was cut off from communications with Yavin, with the _Falcon_ – with everyone, as a matter of fact. She wished that she could use the Force to move the _Falcon_, but the one person in the galaxy with enough control to manhandle a spacecraft with the Force was currently a five-year-old boy…

            '…_no matter how highly Kyp Durron thinks of himself.'_

            When it was done, she heaved a sigh of relief. She unbuckled her safety restraints and stood up, stretching her limbs before heading out to the door. She tapped a key on the panel beside the door, watching as the door slid aside to reveal a pressurized tunnel connecting to the _Falcon'_s hull. Glad that she insisted on the very best equipment for all of her ship, even if only to match Karrde, she walked across the tunnel. Before she had quite reached the end of it, the _Falcon'_s end of the tunnel opened, and two small blue-eyed boys bowled into her. 

            "Oof…" 

            She found herself with children hanging onto her legs. "Boys…" 

            "We're so sorry, Aunt Mara!" bawled Anakin. She could, with the Force, feel the lingering panic and nervousness that had plagued both boys. _'It must have been scary, to be all alone on a spacecraft and have it take off…' _

            She sighed. _'Five-year-old or twenty-five-year-old, whenever I meet Luke Skywalker he's always in trouble.'_

*** 

            Mara raised Leia on the comm, but didn't stay long – just long enough for her to confirm the story that tumbled out of the boys' mouths, and for Leia to (repeatedly) thank Mara and to see for herself that the boys were safe. 

            She made Luke and Anakin stay, buckled tightly, in the seats of the non-existent crew, the navigator and copilot seats. She decided to keep them there so as to have an eye on them while she negotiated her re-entry into Yavin IV's atmosphere. She expected to be plagued with questions about the bridge and the _Fire_, but both Anakin and Luke were quiet – uncharacteristically subdued. 

            '_Well, that's good, isn't it?'_ the redhead asked herself. '_What they did was wrong – though not really that out of character for either of them – and they need to know that and reflect on it, don't they?'    _

            The silence felt odd and uncomfortable to her, though.

            They landed with little incident, despite the difficulty of a spacecraft docked to her own. Mara Jade was a good pilot, one of the best in the galaxy. There were few who could match her in sheer finesse when handling a ship – Han Solo, though he could perhaps push a ship to be faster than she could, could not; Lando Calrissian could not; the only ones who could were Corran Horn and Luke Skywalker. 

_            'Maybe it's a Force thing.' _

            She stood at the _Fire's _entry, waiting for the door to raise completely. Anakin and Luke waited behind her, shifting from foot to foot nervously. Mara glanced behind her, noticing for the first time the smears of oil and the aroma of engines on the boys. She watched as Luke, seemingly reflexively, brought up a hand to run through unruly blond hair, while Anakin tried to wipe his face with a shirt sleeve just as grubby as he was.

            The door opened.

            As the three moved down the ramp, they saw the doorway to the hangar slide open, and Han and Leia were running towards them. Anakin darted past her, running to his father and jumping into Han's arms, all the while babbling apologies. Han laughed, the sound a little louder than usual from sheer relief, rumpling his son's sandy hair. Leia seized her son from Han's hold, and Mara could see her checking over Anakin with both a mother's eyes and with the Force, a sigh of relief when she was convinced of his health. And then, of course, came the scolding – but Mara caught the sense, from Han's feelings, that it was much milder than the one Leia had given Han. And as for the roguish ex-smuggler himself – well, with no training at all in the Force, it was easy to feel the waves of rather reluctant pride for his son fixing whatever was wrong with the _Falcon._

            And then they looked at the other culprit, and Mara could suddenly feel a sudden jolt in the Force from Luke's direction. It was sudden and quick, and in the manner of Luke's newly-altered Force-presence, hard to get a handle on. Yet something about that lightning-flash of…of _something…_disturbed Mara. 

            Han began to walk towards them, grinning. Mara could just imagine the teasing he'd give Luke…

            There it was again, but more intense this time. Mara turned to look at Luke and was shaken. The child was trembling, as if exposed to biting Hoth winds. He was hugging himself, arms wrapped around a skinny chest, in a vain attempt to stop the shivering. But what struck her was the look of pure, unadulterated fear in blue eyes wide in a suddenly pale face. 

            She frowned, puzzled. "Luke…?" 

            Those fear-struck eyes fastened onto her face with intensity born of desperation. The fear that was growing in them was coupled with a silent plea. A plea for what? 

            Han, who had not yet noticed Luke's strange behavior, came closer. 

            A shudder wracked through Luke's tiny frame, and he hugged himself tighter. Tears began to brighten his eyes, and one clear teardrop slipped free to trace a slow path over his brown cheek. Mara knelt down in front of him, to see him better at his eye-level.

            By this time, Han had seen something wrong with the boy. "Hey, kid!" he called, worry clear in his tone. He began to pick up his pace. His wife, suddenly alert, looked up from her talk with Anakin. 

            Luke whimpered, a heart-broken and heart-breaking sound, and flung himself into Mara's arms. He buried his face into her shoulder, like an orphaned cub seeking refuge from a coming storm. Mara, shocked, could only bring her arms around the shaking, suddenly-sobbing child in front of her. 

            And then she heard what he was saying, and her blood ran cold. 

            "I'm sorry…I didn't mean to…I'm sorry…I'm sorry…" he sobbed. He nuzzled closer, but it was no warm affectionate gesture…it was a reaction of pure terror, a try for shelter. "Please, I'm sorry, I won't do it again…please don't let him hurt me!" 

            Mara spun, her green eyes flashing. "Solo…get out of here!" Han stopped dead in his tracks. Confused, he asked, "What?" and took one step closer. Luke, who had tightened his arms around Mara when she spun, afraid she was going to leave him, whimpered again. 

"Solo…please…you've got to get out of here."

            By now, Leia and Anakin had picked up on the waves of sheer terror emanating from Luke, even with the difficulty of registering anything in the Force concerning the boy now shivering in Mara Jade's arms. Leia began to come nearer, her fear for her twin pushing her into a run. Anakin stood stock-still where his mother put him down, clenching his fists tightly.

            Mara stood up, still cradling the small boy in her arms. She looked straight at Han. "Solo, I know this is confusing, but you have got to leave here…now! You being here is just making this all worse." Her gaze fastened on the other child in the hangar. "And take Anakin with you."

            Confused and anxious, but recognizing the seriousness in Mara's eyes, Han backed off. He seized his youngest son's hand, eyes still fastened on Mara, Luke, and the approaching Leia. Anakin did not react to his father, except to follow him when Han shepherded him out of the hangar.

            Mara reached one hand up to stroke Luke's silver-blond hair, murmuring soothing words into the sobbing boy's ear, the urge to calm coming nearly instinctively to the hard-bitten, assassin-trained, former Imperial. "Shh…shh…he's gone now…look, see, he left…Luke, no one is going to lay a finger on you without your consent…we won't let them…shh…shh…Luke…" 

            He just held tighter to her, still crying.

            Leia was next to them, then, and reaching out anxious hands for Luke. Mara let him go slowly, loath to move him – he was crying so. But Luke showed no evidence that he was aware or reluctant towards the move – he just latched onto his sister's neck with the same desperation, still crying. 

            "What's wrong with him?" cried Leia, her own fear at what was happening to Luke bright and obvious in the Force. She, however, rubbed soothing hands up and down the boy's back, and stroked his hair, and basically brought to bear the experience of hugging and assuring three children through at least seven years brought. And, Mara noticed, Luke was beginning to calm down, sobs lessening in volume, his heaves for breath gentling. 

            Mara shook her head. "He was…he was desperately afraid that Han was going to beat him for taking the _Falcon._" 

            "But Han has _never_ laid a finger on children…"

            "But I bet that the only adult male authority figure that this Luke knows did," Mara said, suddenly grim. She was staring at Luke's back; the child's hysterical sobbing had caused his tunic to ride up somewhat, and she could see the pale tell-tale scars on the tanned skin. 

            Leia caught the sudden chill and anger in Mara's sense. She craned her neck over the boy's head, and saw what Mara saw. A horrified silence descended upon them.

            Luke, exhausted by his ordeal of ship-'stealing' and the subsequent terror and rescue from certain agony, fell asleep on Leia's shoulder. 

You were born on a night filled with stars

You were crying weakly in your mother's arms

Not knowing joy, not knowing sorrow

With starry 

And innocent eyes  


End file.
